Is .AVI still in your list of recognized file types? Is there anything in your ignore list that would exclude the files? Have the files you're testing already been added to the File path field of their respective records?

I have a lot of TV series, all neatly named (I use TV rename for that, great prog.). The format of the file name is: series-name - SxxRyy - episode-name (all info from the TVDB.com, that's where TV rename gets it from). From what I have read on this forum (and by trial and error), the TVDB plugin is not really giving good results (or maybe I am not using it correctly; please advise). So I use the IMDB plugin, which 1) gives me all the seasons and 2) per season the detail info per episode.

What happens is that for nearly all episodes the dialog comes up with a selection of movies with a comparable name - one of which is the "title" "episode" I am looking for. My question is, why is this? Since the title (show name) is known I expect it would be possible to shorten the dialog list (and in 90% of the cases eliminate it, since only one choise is left).

Am I doing something wrong (or inefficient)? Or is it on a todo list? Or (very possible) is it just a stupid question of some guy of PVD newbie.

Thanks for a great program; by far the best I have seen in this field!

Not having URL's for episodes, the plugin is requesting a search by Title. I don't know why it doesn't get the episode URL's when the series is added in the first place. Or, if that's not feasible, why it can't get the episode Titles and URL's from a summary page. The search is very annoying. If it is necessary, I wish it were restricted to exact matches of Title, automatically accept any single hit, and otherwise fail. Picking from such a list is a waste of time.

I've found the annoyance is minimized if I first, when adding the series, run the TVDb plugin. It always downloads a package with all available data about the series—including episodes. That, of course, doesn't add IMDb URL's, but having the episode records created and properly named seems to help the IMDb plugin find the correct episodes. After running the TVDb plugin, select all the episodes of a season and run the IMDb plugin. If I still get the search dialog and the correct episode is not at the top of the list, I just skip that episode, add the URL manually, and then run it again on that episode.

Notice I haven't said anything about the file scanner or regex. The matching of files to database records is a completely separate matter. Creating and updating the records doesn't require matching the files, and it's more efficient to do this first. Once there are accurate episode records for the series in the database, a properly configured scanner will have no difficulty matching the files.

Thanks for your prompt reply.Let me check if I understand what you're saying (and what I am thinking / wondering):

1) The TDV plugin does a search by Title (as does TV rename). This would return the TVDB seriesid (and if we could store that somewhere like the IMDB number that would set us off, I guess?).2) TDV allowes you to get an overall overview of all episodes of a show (something like: http://thetvdb.com/?tab=seasonall&id=73200&lid=7). So if that is used by the plugin (is it?) I would end up with a complete overview of all episodes of the show.3) TV rename also pulls out the artwork if available per season and per episode. Hence it must be possible. But if I understand it correct the plugin doesn't (as yet) support this?

So, with the plugin as is, the procedure is: run TVDB plugin on the show (I did, but the title matching came up with nothing); then run IMDB per season to get the details (I do, but I run IMDB as step 1 also). The net effect of what I do is the large number (from my point unnecessary) entries in the dialog. By this I mean that when the dialog list is build, checking it with the known Title of the season would eliminate nearly always all other options in the dialog list, resulting in one (the correct one) that could be chosen automatically.

I understand your point about the filename and the database record. The question there was how do I get a correct record in the database given that I use my filename (see format in the previous post) as the input. From the little I know of regex my guess was that the expression would correctly result in a valid title/season/episode and hence a valid record in the database. Would you agree?

To wrap it up: TV rename seems to do a nice job naming files based on TVDB (the source code is available). A great program like PVD could benefit from an approach like TV rename is using to get the series handling done easier(i.e. getting large numbers of records in the database without much handwork). TV rename just scans all folders, looks up show name, season, episode from TVDB and downloads all TVDB information. With that it can update the filenames and stores images and other episode data in XML.

Maybe I have it completely wrong or am I lacking the knowledge, so excuse me but I really like to understand. Thanks.

Just to be clear, I'm not the developer, nostra is. I can only tell what I've learned from using the program. Bear in mind this is the hobby effort of one individual, and the TVDb plugin is one of many. Also, as good as it is for some things, it's not a source everyone will need or want to use. It, or other software that uses it exclusively (like TV Rename) are not likely to be model for all aspects of handling series.

Don't ask me how (I haven't tried it myself), if TV Rename writes sidecar data files, you might be able to import those using the Text file import plugin. There's also a plugin or script for importing local images (perhaps just posters), but I'm less sure how practical that might be.

I use Sick Beard for handing series. Like TV Rename, it's open source and no longer actively supported, but it works. And while I'm not familiar with TV Rename, it may do more. It looks for torrents of new episodes, works with my torrent client to download them, renames and moves them, and gets all the TVDb data (including images)—all automatically. Even so, I don't find it too difficult to maintain the same information in PVD using the plugin. It won't get the episode images, but they're generally crappy anyway. I prefer to let PVD automatically create some screenshots. I then choose one to use as a poster, and delete the rest. I suppose the other reason I don't mind this approach is I need to run the IMDb plugin to get the people data anyway. I run both as a batch for updating episodes.

My point is, I could suggest PVD do what Sick Beard does, or to be integrated with it so they can be used seamlessly together. I don't, because I don't expect others to adapt to my personal preferences—including those who use TV Rename or something else. What's important is that it provide the tools necessary to adapt to any reasonable situation. It can create series records using several sources and add data from sidecar files. It's file scanner can easily match episode files named by any systematic naming routine.

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run TVDB plugin on the show (I did, but the title matching came up with nothing); then run IMDB per season to get the details (I do, but I run IMDB as step 1 also).

I'm not sure, but maybe the better result I get is from running the TVDb plugin first.

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The question there was how do I get a correct record in the database given that I use my filename (see format in the previous post) as the input.

Don't use the filename as input! It only takes a moment to Add a series by entering it's name and running the plugin. Once the series records are created, the file scanner will properly match the files.

Get your point. So it's up to the TVDb plugin to become more powerful. One remark... it would be nice to be able to enter the TVDB series number (as it does for IMDB) to help the plugin do it's job and, if PVD would have some unused field in the database, to store it for future references (like it does for IMDB).

I don't know why it doesn't save the URL in the URL field like other plugins. Perhaps because the plugin API doesn't use it—but it's still useful as a link (I add it manually). If the plugin would just do that and get the default poster instead of all of them, it would be a huge improvement.

Yes, I agree. It would be great if multiple URL's were possible giving each "lookup" plugin it's own field to do it's job. And we could even have the possibilty to find out what information came from where (by storing a reference to that field). Maybe something for nostra's next release?

Is there a way to use the file scanner but only to get individual file info? I don't want them to be grouped by seasons/episodes, as these aren't all TV shows. I want to have one long basic list of single titles, even if some are similarly named or are in the same folder.